Sunday, March 27, 2011

A COLD, WET, WINDY GRAY DAY……PLUS THUNDER, LIGHTNING & HAIL!!

EVERY YEAR I GET A SHOT OF THESE WIND MILLS FOR MIKE AS WE GO BY

Woke up to a cold gray windy damp day in Henrietta Texas this morning. Checked out weather patterns for the coming week & could see that our good luck weather of past years was not going to be on our side this time. Decided if we have to be cold we might as well be cold in the comfort of our house back in Bayfield. With that thought in mind we switched travel gears & had the big wheels rolling east by 8:40 a.m.

THIS PHOTO KIND OF SUMS UP OUR DAY

The day remained gray & we had sporadic rain showers. Decided to just keep pushing it & pile up some homeward miles. Climbed aboard I-30 west of Texarkana heading east with Little Rock Arkansas in our sights.

PIT STOP EAST OF LITTLE ROCK ARKANSAS

Figured it would be better to see Little Rock in the rear view mirror later in the day rather than have it in our windshield first thing in the morning. Just couldn’t believe the volume of traffic on the Interstate for a rainy Sunday. It was basically a 60 mph traffic jam all the way from west of Texarkana Texas to west of Memphis Tennessee. Truck’s almost outnumbered the cars. The traffic congestion reminded me of why we much prefer the western States to the eastern States.

About 50 miles east of Little Rock the thunder & lightning began & we suddenly ran into a very nasty but brief hailstorm. Only lasted about a mile but visibility was limited with cars pulled off to the side. The hailstones drumming on the rig’s roof sounded like the popping of gunfire. Immediately following the hail we drove out of the storm into a few faint shafts of sunlight.

OH OH….. HAILSTORM!!

I am typing this from an RV friendly Rest Area on the south side of I-40 just east of Hazen Arkansas & about 90 miles west of Memphis Tennessee. It is raining hard & the sharp cracks of thunder have got both Checkers & The Motormouse scared like nuts. TV’s on, Kelly’s making a hot turkey supper with mashed potatoes, gravy & peas, heater’s going full tilt & we are cozy:)) Yep, just gotta love this RV Lifestyle alright.

JUST MINUTES AFTER THE HAILSTORM

Now, I had better back up & take back a statement I made yesterday. Thanks to my old RVing blogger buddy Ed at THE PEREGRINATING GRAYBEARD way back there in Pahrump Nevada, I have had it pointed out to me what the term, ‘troubled waters’ really means. Ed commented & said, “I think I agree with Judy and Emma, I don't see any troubled waters here. Dictionary.com says that 'troubled waters' is a confused or chaotic state of affairs. I find that in my personal life but have not experienced any on the Bayfield Bunch blog.” Well, Ed is right. My use of ‘troubled waters’ was incorrect in describing Jerry’s comment the previous day regarding the Day’s End book. My apologies to Jerry for using a wrong piece of terminology there. Cursmudgeons have a tendency to be that way at the end of long tiring days. Not an excuse as much as it is the way of a Cursmudgeon sometimes. I’ll tell ya…..this having to live life as a human is tough stuff!!

OUR OVER NIGHT SPOT IN THE REST AREA….THE RV AREA WAS FULL PLUS IT’S EASIER FOR MAX TO GET IN & OUT WITH THE SIDEWALK RIGHT THERE!!

Couple typing errors in Saturdays blog about the transmission problem. Had meant to say the transmission wouldn’t shift instead of would. Also, it was a switch on the dash & not a shift on the dash. Typos have been fixed. Hazards of blogging when tired:((

LITTLE MOTORMOUSE IS SCARED OF THE BIG THUNDER MONSTER

Ever notice what a great feeling it is at the end of each traveling day when you reach your destination, shut er down & just go flop in your favorite chair. You can feel the day’s driving stress just simply flow away. Always my favorite part of any driving day.

CANYON DE CHELLY……SOUTH RIM

No destination in mind for tomorrow. We’ll just keep pushing for home….snow or no snow. Anxious to get Max home too. Our health insurance runs out Friday anyway, but yes, we left the Southwest too early. We seem to make that mistake every year. We are good examples of the old saying….We get too soon old & too late smart:(( Oh well, a little snow shoveling will be good exercise for me………….ya right!!!!

<<< CANYON DE CHELLY.……….. SPIDER ROCK

GROANER’S CORNER:(( Hear about the polar bear who was depressed living up North? He left the Arctic, and went all the way to the Antarctic? But he was still not content, since he was now a bi polar bear.

18 comments:

Hope Max is alright. Maybe you just want to get him home because he's old and needs a break from the rig. Sure hope so. I know our Maggie will be one happy girl when we open that front door and she's home.

Well, I must say when you decide to put the miles behind you, you really mean that. Hope your weather improves for you. Hail and thunderstorms put Scooter right over the edge. Skittlez could care less unless they are exceptionally bad. Drive safe.

we wish you safe travels as you continue north..hope the weather improves somewhat..poor poochies scared of the 'big loud noises' outside!!..sleep well,Bayfield Bunch!..we can't believe the ride is almost over..where has the time gone??? :*(

You guys are in Arkansas already, wow to bad you will be going around St Louis, we would have loved seeing you,Maybe Bayfield will be having better luck with spring than MO. this year. In three days it will be my birthday April 1st, that is the day the campground opens at the lake and I usually start de-winterizing. I think I will wait to after the 15th this year.I hope Max is okay and does better when you get home, If you do get more snow , hire some kid to shovel.Be safe out there. Sam & Donna...

I sure hoped it wassn't something I said that you were refering to because I had no idea if you were a SKP or not. It dosen't matter in the least to me...If you are or not...I have lots of friends that aren't, just like RV's arent for everybody....Its is really getting nice here in AZ now,,,,,flowers showing up on everything.....We plan to leave about the last of May, so we have a couple more real nice month's here.

Guess I'm the baddy this time, but in fact I was referring to the comment someone else made about wanting to get their hands on a Day's End. Joining Escapees is the way to do it.

You're certainly back in full travel mode. We will have to make the big adaptation in a couple of weeks when we head out for a summer of travel. It's been over two years since we had any extended RV moving, so we hope to remember how to do it. Let's see, you dump the holding tanks, rinse the sewer hose with a different hose than you use for fresh water, then you unplug the electricity, then what?

We have been following your blog for a while now and wanted to tell you that the pictures of CANYON DE CHELLY are very beautiful, and a place we want to see when we start fulltiming.Bill & Julie McGlumphy

AL'S CAMERA EQUIPMENT

A frequently asked question readers have about my blog is what kind of a camera do I use.

-My Nikon D-90 is the work horse and sports a Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 lens. I use this camera for most of my landscapes.

-My older faithful and favorite Nikon D-40 finally packed it in during the summer of 2016 and my newer Nikon D-3100 now carries my Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4.5-6.6 lens. I use this camera & lens for most of my candid people photos, birds, animals, bugs & flower close-ups.

- Previous to my Nikon D-90, most of my photos were taken with my old faithful Nikon D-50 from 2006 to early 2011 whereupon the D-50 suffered a rather gruesome death when it fell off a table onto a cement porch in southeastern Arizona. The 70-300mm lens on the camera survived the fall but the D-50 did not. My Nikkor lenses are interchangable between the D-90 & the D-3100.

-My Canon Powershot SX210iS is a point & shoot camera which I carry in a case on my belt everywhere I go.-My older Canon Powershot A720iS is the camera that sits close to my recliner for most of those doggy living room photos.